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Monday, 30 July 2012

Another week begins and here in London things are hotting up with Olympic fever. The talk of the town amongst us native Londoners is not what sport are you watching but......how busy was the tube??? Well hubby has just got home in record time with no problems. Let's see what tomorrow brings!!
My card today is for the CAS-ual Friday colour challenge of lime, navy and aqua. These colours spoke 'boy card' to me and when I saw my cousin Lynn's card for this challenge (she is on the DT) I loved her masking and super CAS take on the challenge and decided to 'case' her card-you can view her card here.

I used a square block wooden stamps and had a play with some masking to come up with this:

In real life I think it looks better than the photo and the colours stand out more. This was an experiment but I really like the funky look to it...........so thank you Lynn for the inspiration x

We are off to Santorini on hols on Thursday so I am not sure if I will get another post in. If not, I will be blog hopping and checking out your cards but may not be able to comment-so I will be MIA, but hopefully back full of inspiration and looking super brown and healthy in a few weeks.
I may chat with you before Thursday but if not...happy crafting x

Sunday, 29 July 2012

Again I have not posted for a week but today I had a short spurt of inspiration whilst blog hopping when I saw Kristii's card on Case Study. I loved the medallions in the background. As my mojo is in low gear at the moment I decided to stick to her layout and background colours. I am not a fan of using birds on cards so added this oversize flower and a medallion button I came across in my stash-rather elegant I thought (gosh that did sound very British....must be the influence of the Olympics!)
The sentiment font seemed to match perfectly. Another Thank you card to add to my collection.

Sunday, 22 July 2012

Happy Sunny Sunday..............yes that is right, here in London the rain has stopped and we have a gorgeous sunny day. A day for walking with friends, sitting and snoozing on the terrace, picking your own grown salad for tea, doing some crafting (whilst hubby creates his music-his creative hobby) and naturally a BBQ with a glass or two of G & T......yep that is how I have spent my Sunday. Hope you have been having a good time.

Today my card is for the challenges at both Cas-Ual Fridays and Case Study. Cas-ual Friday was to make a CAS card using a black base card and Case Study, who are celebrating their 100th challenge, was to case Kristii's card below:

I was struck by the gingham ribbon and used this as the inspiration. Plus today I saw Virginia's final post about stretching your stamps and loved how she gave us lots of ideas of how to use the little extra stamps that come with the main sets. I have used quite a few in my card and am just a little bit pleased with myself!! This card was such fun to do and I finally got to use my 'retro disco ball' stamp from Craft Meow. This is going to a guy who hits the big 40 this year.

And one of our fellow crafting bloggers Asha always decorates the centre of her cards and I am amazed at how she has the patience to do this on every card-so here is to you Asha....you inspired me to craft the centre of the card:

Saturday, 21 July 2012

Hello crafting buddies,

I have been MIA for over a week now as I have been poorly. I have been reading your posts and forever being amazed at your creations but I have not felt up to commenting very often however it is now a new week!

I have started my new week with a card for my Mum who came to stay and look after me for a few days. At 46 seems a bit silly to have your Mum looking after you but I believe we all need our Mums whatever age we are. I wanted to show my Mum how much I appreciated her help and to let her know that I love her dearly...........so what better way to do this than to make a card!

This card was inspired by the challenge photo below on Runway Inspired. Saw this photo and loved the blue pattern on the dress and the white belt space plus the bright pink slash of those 'on to die for' shoes!

And I came up with this:

I can't remember where I got these swirl stamps from and haven't used them before but all other stamps are from Paper Smooches. And as I have started an online CAS course and learning about 'one layer cards' and 'masking' I mixed and matched a few of my newly learnt techniques.

Have a good weekend and I hope to be posting a bit more this week and commenting on your gorgeous cards.

Thursday, 12 July 2012

Today I did the 'one layer cards' class of the Online Card Class course I am taking. I learnt a few techniques and then had a play to see what I could come up with it.

I decided to do a card inspired by this photo on Jay Gee's Nook challenge blog:

I just loved this photo when I saw it and, although the sparkle gem teeth really stand out, what caught my eye was the wooden medallion over the bed in the photo on the left top corner. I knew immediately that I wanted to make a card using my Mehndi Medallion stamp from PTI . This is what I came up with-inspired by the photo and using what I had learnt in the class:

And as I also used the 'Big and Bold' sentiment set from PTI I am going to enter again into the challenge at A Passion for Papertrey -they are being nice to us for the next 2 weeks with a 'anything goes' challenge and as so many of my products are from Papertrey I may well enter a third time!!

Fri-Eve is here so we are nearly hitting the weekend. Hope you have lots of plans......mine unfortunately include defrosting the freezer and supermarket shopping but I am going for a walk with a friend on Sunday, so not all bad.

Hubby is now stuck on the very sweaty London tube and is going to be super late so I am off to chill in the bath.....have a good evening crafty friends x

Wednesday, 11 July 2012

Today my brain hurts from preparing budgets and my head is scrambled with too many numbers that generally are not adding up! I needed a bit of relaxation and headed for my craft space to make a card inspired by this photo from the challenge at Love To Create

I just love the bright and bold colours of the flowers and so used this as my starting point. I have this week been doing an CAS course from the training site Online Card Courses and the first session was based on 'masking' so I used what I had learnt in my class for this card-I masked the centre of the card with post-its then stamped my own pattern around the edge using 'the garden of life' set from PTI

This week I also watched Make it Monday's tutorial 'stamping on texture' and used this technique to stamp on my much loved PTI 'linen' impression plate. I am also going to enter this into the 'anything goes' challenge at A Passion for Papertrey

I now feel more relaxed but a woman's work is never done as it is now time to cook tea!

Monday, 9 July 2012

Yesterday we spent all afternoon watching Murray at Wimbledon and what a game! We were disappointed he didn't win but he played really well and the emotional speech at the end was so moving......who knew he had a heart??

I haven't played along at Just Us Girls for a while. This week Lynn is the host for the sketch challenge. Here is her the sketch:

I was inspired by Lynn's take on the sketch and wanted to try out her method. You can check out here card here. I liked the way she had inked the flag rather than use paper but I also had no idea how to do this but had a play around and after making a template came up with something I was happy with. This is a 10cm/10cm small card which I haven't used for a while but a great size for popping in the post.

Saturday, 7 July 2012

Over on Case Study there is a new muse and this month it is the super talented Kristii, check out her blog here.
Her case card this week is this baby card:

I was inspired by the faint circle background and the bunch of stemmy flowers around the fence. I had no idea how to do a faint circle background but after a bit of trial and error worked out a way and this is what I came up with:

Looking at this card I see that it really looks like a sun so I could replace the flowers with palm trees for another twist on this card.

However flowers are more relevant as this is for one of my friends, Devika, who is helping me set up a gardening club. I have only recently met her but she is great fun and we are getting on really well (you are never too old to meet new friends!) I wanted to make her a little card as she has a very important presentation on Monday and is very nervous. I wanted tolet her know that I will be routing for her!
Devika is a Tennis freak so is joining Callum and I on the sofa tomorrow to watch the mens' final at Wimbledon......we will all be cheering for Andy Murray, eating strawberries and drinking champagne............not a bad way to spend Sunday afternoon (especially as here in London it is going to be a wet, rainy day!)

So what are you up to on Sunday?........and if it is basking in the sun please keep it to yourself!!

Friday, 6 July 2012

Yippee Friday is here at last and the Friday cocktail hour in London is close approaching! Before I pour myself a Martini I have a card to share with you. This card is for the Cas-ual Fridays 'text' challenge.

I was a bit stuck with this challenge as I don't have a script stamp. I do have a script digi but decided to be super creative (for me) make my own 'script' card. I masked off part of an oval shape then just kept stamping the 'thanks' sentiment in memento 'potters clay' ink. I have made some of the text lighter by stamping it on scrap first. The border is from Craft Meow's retro set. I have just curved and coloured it in and then cut half of it out so that it bordered the my 'homemade' script. Also to fit in with the theme used a script embossing folder on 'white core' brown card. Once embossed I sanded it to give an 'old' style effect.

This was a fiddly card to make but a lot of fun as I was trying out a number of new ideas and I am pleased as they seemed to have worked eventually...........don't you think I deserve that Martini now....shaken not stirred and with a twist not an olive!!

Wednesday, 4 July 2012

Happy 4th July to all you American crafting buddies...Enjoy!! Hope you are enjoying the fireworks and barbies and having a drink to celebrate your independence from us!!

Over the last week I have been following Virginia's posts here. She has been showing us a number of ways to stretch the use of our stamps. Her creativity has been inspiring. In my card today I have used 3 techniques she has showcased this week-partial stamping, masking and multiple stamping of the same stamp. I struggled with the masking and tried a number of times before I finally came up with this:

I made this for a friend who loves butterflies and just needed a bit of cheering up so I hope this does the trick!

I have used Colourq's challenge colours for this week of poppy, peach, navy, brocade blue and white. I have stamped the sentiment in a plum colour but I wanted it to stand out more so I hope colourq will allow this!!

I will also enter this into the 'things with wings' challenge at Fashionista

Monday, 2 July 2012

What you haven't finished your Christmas shopping!! Well hurry you only have 5 months left. Plus you have all those cards to make.....better get going!
Nope I haven't started either......however today I did make a Xmas card, the first one of the year. My cousin Lynn inspired me to get going on the Xmas cards as last week she dedicated a whole week to Xmas cards (she was showing off really.......or rather showing us up for not being quite so organised!!). You can see a collection of Lynn's card's here

I decided to use the 2 circle theme on Cas-ual Fridays as a starting point and this is what I came up with using a button and a gem as my circles:

I have again used the linen impression plate but this time layered it on houndstooth card. I cut out and coloured some holly and used a red button from my stash for berries. A little round black gem was all I needed for my second circle.

So hurry, hurry I hear those sleigh bell's ringing and I can see santa filling your stockings BUT you still haven't been Xmas crafting....santa is not happy!!

Sunday, 1 July 2012

July 1st is here and yet again I am rushing to do my July Calendar. So this morning my first job was to get down to it and stamp a bright and cheerful summer chill scene. And here we are:

I don't know about you but this looks the perfect Summer chill time activity! I might have to drop the pint and have a glass of chilled Rose though!

I added this sentiment as I do tend to 'wish big' when I am on hols. I don't know why but when I am away I often start to dream about where I want to go next and then wish it will come true.......sometimes if I wish big enough, cross fingers and toes..........my wishes come true!!
I have no hols planned yet but I am wishing for a trip to the sun pretty soon so I can chill in a hammock and 'wish big'!!